The present invention relates to devices for enhancing the durability and freight handling capacity of pickup trucks.
Pickup trucks are commonly used to transport small amounts of freight over short distances. A pickup truck bed, which holds the freight, is typically a rectangular box-like shape with an open top. A wall of the bed furthest from the truck's passenger compartment is referred to as a tailgate. It can be unlatched from the bed's side walls and pivotted downwardly from a vertical to a horizontal position.
When the tailgate is horizontal or "flat", freight can be easily loaded over it and onto the bed. When the tailgate is raised to its upright position and latched to the sidewalls, it secures the freight within the bed by preventing rear ward movement, as the truck is operated.
Occasionally, the pickup truck operator has to transport articles that are longer than the bed. Typical examples are canoes, rowboats, ladders, boards and other long or bulky items. Usually one end of such an article is placed in the bed, next to the passenger compartment. The other end protrudes beyond the tailgate. In order to prevent the article from sliding out of the bed, the gate is kept raised and a rear portion of the article rests on top of it. This arrangement causes the articles to rest in an angular alignment, with its center of gravity well within the truck's bed. Consequently, the possibility of its sliding rearwardly, out of the truck, during transportation is significantly decreased.
Unfortunately, placing large articles on top of an upright tailgate causes problems. First, tailgates are not designed as weight bearing structures in that position. Because the articles of freight are not lying flat, a great deal of weight is brought to bear against the top edge of the tailgate. Persistent use of a tailgate in that manner causes excessive wear. Second, when freight is resting on an upright tailgate, the tailgate cannot be pivoted downward without great difficulty. Therefore, the volume of the bed between the freight and the floor of the bed cannot be efficiently utilized. If additional freight is stored there, the article resting on the tailgate's top edge would have to be removed to allow the tailgate to pivot open in order to gain access to that freight.
Devices have been developed that afford protection to the top edge of the tailgate when it is used to support freight. Most of these devices, however, are designed to be affixed to the tailgate. Therefore, they do not allow the tailgate to be opened and closed without moving the supported freight. Additionally, many of these devices are of a semi-permanent nature, utilizing bolts and nuts for securing a support member that transverses the top edge of the tailgate. They do not afford rapid assembly for temporary use during transportation of oversized freight. Therefore, they remain in place, subject to wear and accidental disassembly during normal pickup truck use.
Accordingly, it is the primary object of the present invention to provide a freight stacking support which supports oversized freight above a tailgate of a pickup truck.
It is another object to provide a freight stacking support which allows a tailgate of a pickup truck to be pivoted from its closed, or upright, position to its open, or flat, position, while the freight stacking support is deployed and supporting freight over the tailgate.
It is yet another object to provide a freight stacking support that may be easily and rapidly assembled for supporting oversized freight above a tailgate of a pickup truck and which can be readily disassembled for normal operation of the truck.
It is a further object to provide a freight stacking support which supports oversized freight at varying adjustable heights above a tailgate of a pickup truck.